Drop in on the Pine Bush UFO Fair

Friday

Apr 26, 2013 at 2:00 AMApr 26, 2013 at 8:35 AM

Are they powered by something otherworldly, or by the power of suggestion? Regardless of what side of the sightings your view aligns with, fun certainly won't be foreign at the third annual Pine Bush UFO Fair.

Deborah J. Botti

Are they powered by something otherworldly, or by the power of suggestion?

Regardless of what side of the sightings your view aligns with, fun certainly won't be foreign at the third annual Pine Bush UFO Fair. The festival Saturday begins with a 5K run/walk and ends with the interactive Air Pirates Radio Theater apropos performance of "War of the Worlds," with all things alien in between. Space invaders and their craft will even be on parade, and Main Street is closed until 4 p.m., when the vendors take off.

"We're recognized as the UFO capital," says Charles E. Carnes, the supervisor of the Town of Crawford for the past 12 years, within which the hamlet of Pine Bush is nestled. "So whether you're a true believer or just want to have some fun, this is a good reason to come see what we have to offer."

Not that Pine Bush doesn't already draw the curious. Carnes says cars are still spotted parked along the sides of certain roads, the occupants of which hoping to catch a glimpse of the inexplicable in the night sky.

"There were various reports of bright lights and spaceship-looking things landing in the farmer's field down along West Searsville Road. Now there's a housing development in that area, so there's been nothing from there in the last couple of years," Carnes says.

Dino Mavros even recalls such a conversation with a farmer.

"He doesn't know what it is that he saw, but he saw something in the field," says Mavros, who named the eatery he built 10 years ago the Cup and Saucer Diner — as in flying saucer — capitalizing on the theme to encourage folks to gather and engage in extraterrestrial talk over a cup of joe. "The bottom of our menu even has a little UFO-sighting history from (author) James Bouck Jr. ... And there have been many stories over the years."